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Monday, January 20, 2014

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Anthony Calvillo Remembered

Tomorrow
Anthony Calvillo will be holding a press conference where it is almost a
certainty that he will officially put an end to one of the greatest careers in
football history. I was kinda hoping he would hang in there for one more season
purely because he would become the first guy to play against three different
versions of a franchise (Rough Riders, Renegades and REDBLACKS). No way that ever happens again. But given his
age and the severity of his last injury, it’s no surprise to see him call it a
career now. I mean he has honestly accomplished all there is to accomplish (short of throwing a TD pass to himself). The
only regret he will have about his career is that he didn’t get to end it on
his terms and the final play of his storied career will be having his brains
scrambled on the Mosaic turf. He deserved a better send off.

In
the coming days and months there will be a plethora of articles detailing his
the awards, records and championship that Calvillo amassed over the past 3
decades and honouring his greatness. I won’t even attempt to tread into that
realm. I’ll leave that to the actual journalists. Besides you didn’t come here
for real journalism. So I will now honour Calvillo’s storied career with a
bunch of random and meandering thoughts.

Cavillo
started his career so long ago that:

-He
knew a world of two Rough Riders

- He knew a world before McGill Stadium

-Ottawa
had yet to fold even once

-He
knew a CFL where legitimately the best team was called the CFLers

-It
was still called Skydome and Taylor Field respectively.

-Paul
McCallum had just received his pin for 25 years of CFL service during Calvillo’s
rookie campaign

-The
Riders were a gong show organization and the Eskimos were the gold standard

-The
only thing Calvillo never saw in his storied career was the Bombers win the
Grey Cup

-He
must have really loved football to not walk away from the CFL in disgust after
his Las Vegas Posse experience

-For
a Mexican so be so beloved in a place that be so pro-french it defies logic at
times is pretty telling as to Calvillo’s greatness

-Calvillo’s
career is unbelievable even before you factor in the medical issues he and his
wife have persevered through

-Despite
his greatness, Calvillo seems to be genuinely nice and universally liked. Only
guy I can think of to not like Calvillo is Brett Favre.

-While
his career has had many highlights, this comedic attempt at a drop kick was definitely
a low light (still hilarious)

So
let me simply end by saying that it has been a privilege to watch Calvillo play
over the past years (minus the Grey Cup in ’09 and ’10) and I consider him to
be one of the best to ever play.